Bible Verses for Sunday Service January 8, 2023
Isaiah 65:17-18
For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
Proverbs 3:6
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Announcements:
Our annual meeting and potluck will be on January 15. Everyone is welcome to join us for a potluck right after church. Our annual business meeting will follow. We will be electing officers and voting on the budget for the coming year. We will consider a project involving the support of a missions’ training center with ACTS International.
If anyone would like to make a nomination for the church offices, put the name of the person you are nominating on the sheet on the foyer bulletin board. Also, if you are presently an officer and would like to be on the ballot for next year, let Pastor Jim know.
Be sure to check to see if your information is correct on our preliminary copy of the church directory. The directory is in the foyer on the table. Please make any needed corrections by writing them in.
Lastly, the new greeter schedules for January through April 23 are on the foyer table.
Special:
We were blessed again for the last time over the Christmas season with Cole’s playing beside his father Dale for our worship music. Cole returns to school for his last semester. Let’s all pray for his well being and success.
Sermon:
In honor of the birth of Our Savior, Pastor continued his series in Luke with “A Significant Snapshot of Jesus’ Childhood.” He covered the only event we know of in Jesus’ childhood Luke 2:23-39. In this sermon, Pastor thought about why only this event is included in the Gospel of Luke. Perhaps Luke told Mary he only had room for one event, and she chose the one that she treasured in her heart.
In covering this event from Jesus Childhood, Pastor chose to split into two: How Jesus was like any other child, and How he was unlike any other child. Considering the former, Pastor asked us to consider that Jesus experienced growth like any other human child. The Bible tells us He grew in spirit and wisdom, just like his relative John the Baptist. Just like he grew as any child did, he also did what most children do, which is to exasperate his parents. The trip to Jerusalem where his parents lost him for a while was hard on them. Mary asked how could you do this to us? Pastor described his own experience, memorable all these years on were he was worried after losing his child for a little while in a department store.
So Jesus was like every child, but he was also unlike any other child. Firstly, Jesus at age 12 spoke of God my father. His explanation to his exasperated parents was a mystery to them, even though the angel had told Mary what would happen, and the angel visited Joseph too. This quality of his would result in his sentence to death in the future, for the high priest put him under oath and asked if he was the son of God in Matthew 26:63-64. For all his failings, the high priest understood that to be a claim of deity, equality with God.
Besides being God as well as man, this difference showed up in everyday life, his voluntary submission. He humbled himself to live a sinless life with brothers and sisters. His earthly father died too, and he looked after his mother. But, this background equipped him to know everything about our lives so he could be that perfect intercessor described in Hebrews 4:15-16.
Let’s call out to him now and everyday for his forgiveness and equipping for the struggles we face having a fresh appreciation for his unique qualities, fully God and fully man, illustrated perfectly in this one scene from Luke.
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
Here are the pages from the bulletin, click on the images below to see them full size:
If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
If you would like a link to this service you can find it here. Perhaps you would like to share it with your friends. You could also share that link on social media, if you use any of the providers. We use Rumble, a safe alternative to Google’s YouTube.